The Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) Program was created to assess and monitor the vital rates and population dynamics of North American landbirds. Each summer dedicated volunteers operate bird-banding stations to collect data on individual "birds-in-the-hand" representing over 200 species.

The MAPS Program utilizes constant-effort mist netting and banding at a continent-wide network of monitoring stations. Analyses of MAPS data provide critical information relating to the ecology, conservation, and management of North American landbird populations and the factors responsible for changes in their populations.

Each summer we offer challenging and exciting internships to operate MAPS stations on National Forests, National Parks, and Dept. of Defense properties including several Audubon-listed Important Bird Areas.

More information is provided on the following subjects:

Internships and Supervisory Biologist Positions - each summer IBP offers exciting and challenging internships in WA, OR, CA, TX, MO, IN, KY, NC, WV and ME..

MAPS Materials - Information and materials for MAPS station operators.

Training Courses - Bander training courses are both scheduled and on-demand.

Publications - publications relating to analyses of MAPS data. A general overview of MAPS activities and other IBP programs can be found in our 2009 Annual Report

MAPS Results Query Interface - provides MAPS station information and tabulates regional estimates of MAPS productivity indices and survivorship (1992-2003). Previously these indices and estimates have been available only in IBP's peer-reviewed publication, Bird Populations.

MAPS Chat is a periodic newsletter highlighting results and applications of MAPS monitoring:

MAPS Chat - Spring 2009
MAPS Chat - Spring 2007
MAPS Chat - Spring 2004
      Color Images used in Spring 2004 MAPS Chat
MAPS Chat - Spring 2002

MAPS article and video - read the story of one MAPS station and see station operations in action by clicking the video icon at the end of the article.

MAPS is organized around research and management goals as well as monitoring goals. MAPS data are used to describe temporal and spatial patterns in the vital rates of target species, and relationships between these patterns and

• ecological characteristics and population trends of the target species,
• station-specific and landscape-level habitat characteristics,
• spatially explicit weather variables, and
• regional climate variation (see Climate and Birds).

Information from these patterns and relationships are then used to

• identify the causes of population declines,
• formulate management actions and conservation strategies to reverse declines and maintain healthy productive populations,
• evaluate the effectiveness of management and conservation strategies, and
• inform land owners and conservation agencies of "best practices"..

In 2008 the MAPS network numbered nearly 500 active stations (~1000 have ever operated). Since 1989 the MAPS program has received the support and endorsement of many federal agencies and conservation groups, including the USDA Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Biological Resources Division of the USGS, the Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program, the National Audubon Society, and the international cooperative Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Initiative, "Partners in Flight."

The MAPS Program has produced numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers, manuals, handbooks, non-peer-reviewed position papers, and technical (mostly annual) reports to federal and state agencies and private organizations. MAPS data have been used in a number of conservation and management planning documents, including land management planning on DoD military installations in the Midwest and Texas, on national forests in Oregon and Washington, and the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, a report solicited by the United States Congress.

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